Washington University (WU) School of Medicine is linked with BJC Healthcare, one of the largest and most diverse non-profit health systems in the U.S including two "top 10" teaching hospitals;Barnes Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital. WU is an outstanding environment for research, research training, and clinical care. We are applying for an Institutional Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Mentored Career Development Award (KM1) (RFA-OD-10-011) at WU to expand the workforce capable of performing CER. We will use existing infrastructure at WU including the Center for Clinical Research Training, Institute of Public Health and Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences to develop and implement a new CER Career Development Program. We propose the following Specific Aims: 1. Develop and implement mentored hands-on CER training experiences using research data, administrative data, and electronic health records. Provide CER training opportunities to CER scholars and other investigators from diverse disciplines. 2. Develop and implement new CER curricula, classes, and short term training in the existing Masters of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI) degree and the new Masters of Science in Population Health (MSPH) degree at Washington University. 3. Create six new CER scholar positions in the Clinical Research Training Center at Washington University to support postdoctoral fellows and junior and mid career faculty focused on CER. CER scholars will participate in mentored hands-on CER experiences, didactic coursework and training to expand and strengthen the CER workforce 4. Establish a comprehensive system to evaluate the CER Career Development Program. We will evaluate scholars, faculty, mentors and training using real time surveys and input from an external advisory board. The long term impact of this program to strengthen the CER workforce will be measured by tracking abstracts, publications, grants and career development of the CER scholars and others participating in the CER training over the next 10 years. WU has excellent faculty, mentors and infrastructure to support this new CER Career Development Program and an outstanding pool of potential scholars. Establishing this new CER Career Development Program at WU will expand and enhance the pool of investigators qualified to perform CER to identify the best treatments, drugs and procedures to use in real world settings to improve public health and reduce healthcare costs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This grant provides protected time, salary support, and research training for investigators from diverse disciplines to obtain specialized skills in comparative effectiveness research. These well trained investigators will conduct research to determine the best treatments, tests and procedures for patients in real world settings which will improve health outcomes and reduces costs for unnecessary or ineffective treatments. Comparative effectiveness research will provide important new knowledge to inform patients, providers and payers about which treatments and procedures work best in which patients.